Obamacare premium increases may hurt Ohioans more

Ohioans buying insurance through the marketplace for President Barack Obama's health care law could be among the hardest hit in the country if insurance premiums were to rise by 10 percent in 2017, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report released Wednesday.

The report stated that if premiums were to increase by 10 percent, 56 percent of Ohioans would still be able to purchase insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace for $75 a month or less, if tax credits are considered. Average marketplace premiums in Ohio are expected to increase by 12.6 percent in 2017 compared to 2016, the Ohio Department of Insurance found in data released Tuesday.

Nationally, if premiums for the health care law rise 10 percent, 71 percent of participants would be able to buy insurance for $75 per month or less, with tax credits. The study looked at 38 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform to offer health insurance through the program, also known as Obamacare. Of the states studied, 31 would fare better than Ohio, the study stated.

The study found 65 percent of people using the health care law in Ohio would be able to purchase coverage for $100 a month or less if marketplace premiums were to go up by 10 percent in 2017, compared with 77 percent nationally.

The report comes in the wake of growing concerns that the health care law's premiums will increase more in 2017 than in recent years amid poor financial results from some insurers. A widely publicized Aug. 14 study by Affordable Care Act analyst Charles Gaba, of ACAsignups.net, found that insurers submitted premium increase requests to insurance regulators asking to raise premiums by an average of 24 percent across the U.S. in 2017.

But premium increases — even of 25 percent in 2017 — would be mitigated by tax credits offered by the health care law, the Health and Human Services Report stated.

"The combination of tax credits and the opportunity to shop around for coverage through the Marketplace would protect consumers in a hypothetical scenario with much higher premium increases in the Marketplace than occurred last year," the report stated.